Hey everyone. New user to the forum. I've meddled in audiophile affairs for some time, but never really hung around the social circles for it before. Today, I have a rarity to show you and I ask for help in deciding what to do with it. Best-case scenario is it's worth a nice amount so I can justify getting another AR.
Several months ago I came into possession of several boxes of audiophile-related equipment bequeathed to me by a friend's estranged father. Most of it was various NiB and mint cond. vintage tubes from the late 90s, but there was this one item tightly wrapped in an ungodly amount of bubble. Here is a brief imgur album of photos, some of which will appear in this thread.
I was able to find very little information regarding this 'Singlepower Extreme.' The portrait I put together essentially went like so:
Some sources that may prove useful:
A brief reference to SPEx in another forum
Warning About The Singlepower Extreme - Owners Please Read - Head-Fi
What's happened to Mikhail from SinglePower Audio? - Head-Fi
An Audiogon listing with plenty of lore
I also have this funky looking box that says AudioValue on it. Not sure what it is or what it's worth.
The unit I have looks basically unused. It's dusty, but pristine in condition and still shiny as ever. It's safe to assume no work has been done on it. I would be happy to get rid of this thing, but I'm not sure if anyone would even buy it & for what value. I ask for help from y'all to not only identify this and build a more accurate picture of What happened to Singlepower, but also figure out whether I should a) throw it in the trash; b) give it away; c) sell it on the Classifieds; d) have it inspected, repaired, and then sell it on the Classifieds. I personally have no interest in headphone gear, so I would rather not keep it.
Bonus photo of our current setup. Dad's been working on it since the '00s and I joined him a couple years ago. Energy Veritas 2.8, B&W CDM7 Special Edition, Energy Reference Connoisseur, some DCMs in the back, Kenwood L07M power amps, Sansui 9090, Sansui 881 hiding behind it, had Marantz 2285B & 2600 at one point but no longer, various other bits and pieces lying around.
Several months ago I came into possession of several boxes of audiophile-related equipment bequeathed to me by a friend's estranged father. Most of it was various NiB and mint cond. vintage tubes from the late 90s, but there was this one item tightly wrapped in an ungodly amount of bubble. Here is a brief imgur album of photos, some of which will appear in this thread.
I was able to find very little information regarding this 'Singlepower Extreme.' The portrait I put together essentially went like so:
- Singlepower Extremes originally retailed for ~$1,200 sometime in the early 2000s.
- Owner Mikhail Rotenberg built nice amps. Singlepower was lauded as one of the heavyweights of boutique amplifier construction.
- SP's downfall was focusing too much on quality and not making the business practical and survivable: Rotenberg scaled far too quickly and amps began to drastically drop in build quality. Many people were scorned after he took their orders and money, and produced nothing in return. He became dishonest about lead times, dropped out of communication, and eventually disappeared altogether. Near its end, Singlepower built some truly garbage units.
- The design for the SPEx was flawed:
- Its implementation of DC rectification was inefficient; it generated too much heat for a case that had almost no cooling
- The Hammond transformer was pushed far past its limit (often cooking itself into oblivion); the way the transformer was implemented, it produced about 4A of power while the tubes drew almost 6A
- Tube sockets were air-wired; cables were often pulled way too tight, and circuitboards were not properly fitted with grommets. Some units even shipped with no thermal compound on the filament rectifier
- Despite its glaring flaws, some people seem to concur that the SPEx was one of the most astronomically exceptional-sounding amps of its time; the downside was that it tended to melt down and turn into a doorstop.
- After Singlepower's fade into obscurity, the only SP amps trading around were generally inspected and partially rebuilt by technicians in order to avoid kaboom.
Some sources that may prove useful:
A brief reference to SPEx in another forum
Warning About The Singlepower Extreme - Owners Please Read - Head-Fi
What's happened to Mikhail from SinglePower Audio? - Head-Fi
An Audiogon listing with plenty of lore
I also have this funky looking box that says AudioValue on it. Not sure what it is or what it's worth.
The unit I have looks basically unused. It's dusty, but pristine in condition and still shiny as ever. It's safe to assume no work has been done on it. I would be happy to get rid of this thing, but I'm not sure if anyone would even buy it & for what value. I ask for help from y'all to not only identify this and build a more accurate picture of What happened to Singlepower, but also figure out whether I should a) throw it in the trash; b) give it away; c) sell it on the Classifieds; d) have it inspected, repaired, and then sell it on the Classifieds. I personally have no interest in headphone gear, so I would rather not keep it.
Bonus photo of our current setup. Dad's been working on it since the '00s and I joined him a couple years ago. Energy Veritas 2.8, B&W CDM7 Special Edition, Energy Reference Connoisseur, some DCMs in the back, Kenwood L07M power amps, Sansui 9090, Sansui 881 hiding behind it, had Marantz 2285B & 2600 at one point but no longer, various other bits and pieces lying around.
Last edited:
